Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-06-10


to my mother"
And, by her devotion moved to tardy
repentance. Lot Noteware brought out
the horses, and they left the place, Dinah,
for very shame sake, going with them.
On through the night they went, through
the wide, lonely river bottom, so heavily
wooded they could not see the team that
drew them. for the shadow; across the
perilous ford, with its shifting quick
sands, and on over the higher county
roads of their own state. Meanwhile. all
had gone i'll with Mrs. Noteware. Her
guests had tarried until very late, hoping
her people would return: when, at last,
the old ladies reluctantly decided to leave
her. fearful of not reaching their own
home until after dark. their horses mani
tested such signs of unruliness, that Mrs.
Noteware, ever thoughtful for others,
feared the feeble old ladies could not con-
troll the animals, and sent her man SER
want with them. Left with only the old
woman who was her cook, the poor lady
had made every effort to tranquilize
herself, subdue her fears, and explain by
some matter of fact, prosaic reason the
non-arrival of her son and Dinah.
cook. all wild with terror. informed Mrs
! NOteware that some one was trying to
effect an entrance. The lady took rifle
and cooking it. awaited the coming of
the intruder. whose successive move
lnents of progress into the house were in
dictated to her by the serving woman. At
last the door of the apartment they were
in was wrenched open. and large and
burly negro entered. most diabolical of
expression. At his appearance, the SER
want afterward confessed. she was over
come by an uncomfortable paroxysm of
terror, and she rushed from the room
from the house, out into the cover of the
darkness, leaving her mistress to her fate
Mrs. NOteware was of good, brave
blood. AS the black brute approached
she instantly leveled her rifle and fired
and so close was the range, and SO heavy
the charge. that the wound in his fiend-
ish breast would have given exit to the
life of three such, even, as he. Bleed
ing, gasping, dying. the negro turned
and fled.
After such an experience what must
have been the life for the next few hours
of that unhappy lady? What her agonies
of mind? Alone, unhearing. not know
ing whence or at what moment she might
expect further attack racked with APP
prehension for the safety of dear ones,
her senses all overweight by the shock
and the nervous strain, and tormented
! by the thought that she had slain fell
low creature, whose death. though in
self defense she had inflicted it, would
not fail to lie heavily on her tender con-
science. 1t was easy afterward to trace
| her mOvements-tO see how she had re-
barred and barricaded the avenue of en-
trance opened by the negro. 1t was easy
to understand, too. how the awful soil
tude and suspense had preyed upon her,
until the house had seemed like a trap, a
prison. tomb. and following the exam
! pie of her servant. she had thrown open
one of the wide front windows. and
stepped ont into the refuge of the night.
still lowering. however, under the shadow
of her home
1t was almost midnight when the party
from Charities halted at the gate, and
Edna, bidding her brother hasten to meet
and reassure their mother. herself set
about fastening the horses pending the
arrival of the man to stable them. She
had just turned toward the house. with
Dinah covering fearfully at her side
when she saw her brother at the angle of
the mansion, in relief against the lesser
darkness of the starry sky, and at the
same moment a shot rang out on the
night. its flash showing the light colored
raiment of Mrs Noteware, standing at
the opposite corner with leveled gun.
Edna sprang forward with a cry of
horror. Before she had gone half rod
she stumbled and fell over some object
| lying across the path, and, reaching out
her hands to help herself to her feet
they rested upon the woolly head of a
negro-the man her mother had shot
earlier in the night. The girl was quick
and bright, and like flash her intuition
taught her what had happened She
gasped few words of explanation to the
horror struck Dinah, and again flew to-
ward her mother, thinking naught of
self, nothing of the danger she incurred,
only of bringing relief to the stricken
woman. Taller than her mother, the
girl threw her arms about Mrs. Noteware
as she reached her, gasping: "Oh.
mother! darling mother! it is Edna.
Are you injured? and OH have you killed
Lot?''
But the poor child's breath was faint
from running and excitement, and her
voice rose not above hoarse and husky
whisper, which her mother could not
hear; nor, in the alarm and haste of the
moment did her sense of tact assist her.
She struggled in the clasping arms of her
faithful daughter, wrenched herself free,
and raising the already twice fatal rifle,
fired again. As Edna fell, another shot
rang almost like an echo. None can ever
know whether the flash of the former
discharge had showed Mrs. Noteware, all
too late, that she had killed her child; or
whether she had, in her frenzy of fear,
fancied herself beset by odds against
which she could no more contend. But
this last time her gun was turned against
herself, and her lifeless body was found
across the corpse of her daughter, while,
few yards away, the son and brother
also lay stark and cold,